October 25, 2013

DIY Gold Leaf Feather Art

My modern & fresh fall home tour is on Sunday and I'm so nervous! I've been working on fallifying our home for the past couple of weeks but I have so much left to do! Anyone feel like coming over to help me? :)

I've never decorated for fall before so I'm trying to work with what I have instead of buying a bunch of new things I'll have to find storage space for. I wanted some fall-ish art for our dining room's console table but I couldn't find anything I loved so I made some Wednesday night!

Psst: sneak peek alert ;)

I started by printing out a feather illustration I sized to 5" x 7". I printed it out in gold so it would match the gold leaf in case I missed a few spots:

I did my best to stay within the print but the brushes tip wasn't thin enough so some glue got a little crazy and spread past the print.

As soon as I finished applying the glue, I placed a piece of gold leaf over the print and gently smoothed it out. This isn't always the case though! Typically you'll need to wait until your adhesive size goes from milky white to clear before applying your gold leaf but my adhesive size was drying fast so I didn't wait at all.

I waited a little bit before removing the excess gold leaf.

I used a soft bristled brush to remove the extra pieces around the feather's edges.

So fun! I actually went to Michael's yesterday and stared at the gold leaf...and thought of you. "I wonder what brand Caitlin uses??" So thanks for showing me the pictures of the supplies! Of course, in the end, I was too cheap and ended up with sharpie paint pens instead!